9 of the 10 of most popular US federal websites fall short of government and industry standards for design and development, including regarding accessibility, according to the the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF). They used publicly available tools to assess website performance in terms of page-load speed, mobile friendliness, security, and accessibility.

Last year, the ITIF reviewed almost 300 of the most popular government websites and published a report in March 2017 documenting its findings. "At the time, we concluded that many federal government websites were not fast, mobile friendly, secure, or accessible. This report assesses progress federal agencies have made since the initial report. While a few agencies have addressed specific issues identified in the previous report, overall federal agencies have made little progress at modernizing government websites."

On paper, up until the current administration, yes, it was a priority. But there are no real consequences for a government office not making website accessibility a priority - they can just keep saying they are "working on it." Unless a lawsuit or majorly bad PR piece is on the horizon, there's little incentive for someone who really doesn't want to incorporate accessibility into designs to do it. The current administration is downplaying the ADA, and I'm expecting a formal statement at some point from the current administration and action by Congress to officially roll it back, including any requirements for accessible web sites.

What factors keep holding them back from making federal websites accessible?

Mostly misconceptions: that it's more expensive to make a web site accessible, that it's too hard to learn, that there "aren't that many people with disabilities that use our site", etc. Without some kind of passionate socially-conscious movement among web designers, or senior management commitment, or a law, or a lawsuit, many web designers aren't going to change how they build web sites.

My husband was recently in a car accident and has a concussion. Even now, several weeks later, he's having some eye issues and headaches. The first week after the accident, he experienced first hand just how bad most web sites are when trying to use assistive technology, as he was trying to browse using a screen reader. This isn't just an issue for the permanently disabled.

For anyone interested in this issue, check out the nonprofit Knowbility.

Update: delays to the Section 508 refresh have made ongoing enforcement difficult. However, the refresh has happened: it was officially published in the U.S. Federal Register in January 2017 and so, the deadline for compliance with the updated Section 508 #a11y standards is January 18, 2018. The new rules, officially known as the “Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Final Standards and Guidelines”, are also documented on the U.S. Access Board’s website.

Section 508 (29 U.S.C. § 794 (d)) was a 1998 amendment to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. In plain English, the law requires US Federal agencies to ensure that employees and members of the public with disabilities have equal opportunities to access government information. Section 508 only applies to US Federal agencies and their electronic communications, and by extension, to private contractors developing for the Federal government. The law does not apply to US state and local government web sites, although many have used Section 508 as a blueprint for their own localized legislation. Section 508 does not apply to private sector web sites. While compliance obligations therefore fall onto a relatively small portion of the accessibility community, the size and scope of the US Federal government makes Section 508 a hugely influential piece of legislation.

Section 508 applies to the elements within a web page, not just the markup of the page itself. Documents, PDFs, and multimedia files must be given full consideration under the standard.

While Section 508 does not apply to private sector web sites, you can see on other TechSoup threads that private companies HAVE been sued under the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). Note that case law in the U.S. for web accessibility continues to be strong, even under the current not-so-ADA friendly administration.

But with all that said: accessible web design is GOOD design, it's customer-focused web design, and I hope that is enough reason for designers to choose to do it.